It was presented as part of the Canadian Folk Music Awards held here in St John's, and the presentation was co sponsored by the NL Craft Council, who allow me to potter in their basement. The luthier giving the lecture was Grit Laskin, who I had never heard of but I went because a potter friend ( and folk musician) was going and it got me out of the house.
Boy this guy was amazing. I am not a guitar fan. Mostly because they are ubiquitous and that means that everyone thinks they are a guitar player. (Note: Just because you have a guitar doesn't mean you should take it to a party.)
Grit Laskin is not simply a guitar maker, he is an artist, and to prove it he was awarded the Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in fine craft in 1997. That's a GG, and he's the only luthier on the list. What put him there is his amazing inlay work on all his custom guitars. After consulting with a client to find out a little about them and what their favourite art style is, he designs unique inlay for the head and neck of each guitar which represents them. I cannot say enough about how astounding his work is. Check out the gallery on his website. Here's an example of his "Blue Woman" in Art Deco.
While we were watching the slide show as he explained the genesis of each design, both my friend and I admitted we were trying to decide what art style and what images would best represent us. Now if we only had the $$$$.
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